October 2012

Last week's release
of CPJ's report on Turkey's press freedom crisis generated widespread domestic media
coverage and sparked a robust public debate. The response from Turkish journalists
and commentators was largely positive, but there were some negative reactions as
well. Turkey's Justice Ministry has promised a detailed response this week.
Here is a summary of the criticism we received during several days of intensive
media interviews, along with our responses.

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The Maria Moors Cabot Prizes, administered by Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism in recognition of journalistic
contributions to Inter-American understanding, are the oldest international
prizes in journalism. But Josh Friedman, director of the prizes, said this year
marked the first time he remembered arriving at the awards ceremony to be
greeted by protesters screaming from behind barricades. The tuxedo and gown-clad
guests last night shot confused glances across the street from Columbia's Italian
Academy building, where about 20 protesters brandishing Ecuadoran flags and pictures of President Rafael Correa yelled
slogans like "Down the with corrupt press!" and "Long live President Correa!"
One sign identified a long list of alleged "enemies of Latin American
democracy" that managed to include the leading dailies of South America, the
United States, Spain, the Ecuadoran press freedom group Fundamedios and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

It
is one step forward and two steps back in Pakistan's restive Baluchistan
province. The nation's highest court has acknowledged the dangerous climate
journalists face in Baluchistan, but it has also affirmed a directive that only
adds to the pressure cooker conditions that journalists work under.

"The rules of the game have changed," then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said after the July 7, 2005, terrorist attacks in London as he announced that the U.K. government would clamp down on terrorists "whatever it takes." Now, the limits of such bold but vague intentions are on show as the draft Communications Data Bill undergoes pre-legislative scrutiny in a joint committee of British Members of Parliament and Peers. Is gathering digital data from the general population a necessary upgrade of law enforcement capabilities, as the British Government argues, or does it dilute the liberal tenets of British democracy for the sake of security?

Five
years ago today, press freedom in Kyrgyzstan received a deadly blow from
which it has never recovered. Alisher Saipov, one of
most promising and prominent regional reporters of his time, was murdered in
his native city of Osh. Since that October night, authorities have promised to
solve his killing, but impunity reigns to this day, Shohruh Saipov, his brother
and also a journalist, told CPJ.

At the time of his murder, Saipov edited his own independent
newspaper, Siyosat (Politics), but
his resume was impressive for a 26-year-old reporter. In his short career, Saipov
contributed to the BBC World Service, the U.S. government-funded outlets Voice
of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Moscow-based regional
news website Ferghana News.

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Few cases better underscore the need for digital security
among journalists. On Tuesday, ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou pleaded
guilty to leaking the identity of another CIA operative to Matthew Cole, a
journalist formerly with an ABC News investigative team. In a 2007
interview with ABC, Kiriakou became the first CIA official to confirm that
waterboarding had been used on Al-Qaeda suspects.

More than 40 media organizations worldwide are demanding
urgent action by governments, the United Nations, and the industry to stop
violence against journalists and end impunity in attacks on the press. They
made their position known in a joint statement
delivered today to the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).

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After intense public pressure, the Maharashtra state
government last week dropped the charge of sedition against Indian cartoonist
Aseem Trivedi. However, Trivedi still faces other charges as his case resumes
tomorrow at the Bombay High court.

The 25-year old cartoonist, who was arrested on September 8, could have been sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted of sedition. He still faces up to three years in prison for other charges including violation of the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act and Information Technology Act, his lawyer Vijay Hiremath told CPJ by e-mail.

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Journalists, like many others in Pakistan, have spoken out
strongly since the Taliban attempted to kill the teenage Malala Yousafzai on
October 9. The Taliban, in return, are threatening the media over their
coverage, according to journalists and news reports.

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For the past several months, CPJ staff has been researching
pervasive press freedom problems in Turkey, including the criminal prosecution
of journalists, the use of governmental pressure to engender self-censorship,
and the presence of a repressive legal structure. This month, CPJ will release
an in-depth report on Turkey's press freedom crisis. In advance of our report, we
are publishing this illuminating interview with Yavuz Baydar, ombudsman for the
Turkish newspaper Sabah and columnist
for Today's Zaman. The interview was
conducted via email.

Syria and Libya were
the main themes at the 19th edition of the Bayeux-Calvados Prize for
War Correspondents, which took place this weekend in the historical city of
Bayeux, a few miles away from the Normandy beaches where Allied forces landed
in June 1944 to liberate Europe from the Nazi yoke.

The
first online journalist killed for his work disappeared one night 12 years ago in
the Ukraine. Georgy Gongadze, 31, left a colleague's house to return home to his wife and two young children. He never arrived. Seven weeks later, a
farmer, a few hours' drive away, discovered the journalist's headless corpse.

Gongadze
edited the website Ukrainska Pravda
and ran stories about corruption and cronyism like no one else in the nation's
state-dominated print and broadcast media. Later, the country's then-president
was implicated in an audiotape in which he was allegedly heard speaking to
aides about the need for Gongadze's murder.

A couple dozen activists gathered this past week in New York
City's Union Square to protest the imprisonment of freelance journalist Lingaram Kodopi and his
aunt Soni Sori, who were
arrested one year ago in India.

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On Tuesday, the Philippines Supreme Court issued a temporary
restraining order stopping the government from enforcing the Cybercrime
Prevention Act of 2012 which President Benigno Aquino III signed into law
last month. The court, in full session, ordered that oral arguments for and
against will start January 15. And it gave the government 10 days to respond to
the many petitioners seeking to declare the law unconstitutional.

Covering political rallies in Pakistan must be considered a dangerous
assignment. One journalist was killed and three others injured on Sunday when
gunmen opened fire on a Pakistan People's
Party (PPP) rally in Khairpur in Sindh province. All told, at least six died
and 10 were wounded critically.

For the
past several months, CPJ staff has been investigating pervasive press freedom
problems in Turkey, including the widespread jailing of journalists. This
month, CPJ will release an in-depth report on press conditions in Turkey. In
advance of our report, we are publishing this interview with Nedim Șener, an
investigative reporter who was jailed for more than a year in 2011-12. The
interview was conducted via email and translated from the original Turkish.

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In a notoriously litigious country like the Philippines, it's
bewildering that the government coupled a law targeting so-called cybercrimes like
cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, and spamming with the hoary
and over-used concept of libel. And no matter how abusive those crimes may be, it's
an even bigger mystery why the government felt it should suspend its lengthy heritage
of due legal process by giving the Department of Justice power to shut down
websites and monitor all online activities without a warrant.

The government of Indian Kashmir has a long record of
failing to respond to physical attacks on the press. This week, the possibility
that websites like YouTube and Facebook were blocked indicated that online
freedoms, too, are under threat.

Violence and legal harassment: the two greatest obstacles to
press freedom in Latin America today. That's the message that CPJ Executive
Director Joel Simon is delivering
this morning in Washington, D.C., at a briefing
hosted by Congressman Sam Farr. Farr, a California Democrat, hosts a monthly
series looking at emerging trends in the Western Hemisphere. The panel today
also includes Commissioner Dinah Shelton of the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights and Delphine Halgand of Reporters Without Borders.